The Disappearing Weapons of Konoha Village!
by Silverlight Neko
Summary: One bright sunny day, weapon eating monsters conjured by the imagination of Iruka are sent to devour Konoha Village's store of weapons! Or is that what really happened?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not in any way; own Naruto the anime, only the story line and whatever things I made up!

**Chapter 1- Iruka's Creepy Class**

It was a day like any other. Konoha village was bathed in bright golden sunlight, wind whispering delicately through the forest around the village. The sky was a brilliant cerulean blue with small patches of cloud floating lazily across, nudged along by an unseen force. In the

village, school had assembled for another day of productive and fun filled learning. Iruka- sensei entered the classroom, sliding the door shut behind him. The classroom fell silent the moment he stepped in to the room. Iruka froze for a second, taking in his class, before

continuing to advance in to the room. He felt a slight sensation of discomfort crawl up his spine. Every student's pair of eyes rested upon him, staring at him intently. Almost, too intently. Iruka suddenly had the urge to dash out of the classroom and hide from the boring eyes

of his students. It was like they were a pack of wolves hunting him, observing him, waiting for the kill. Ever since the graduation of his class last year, Iruka had received a class of particularly respectful, obedient and almost freakish students. By the time he reached his

desk at the front, Iruka felt like melting in to the floor and escape the unwelcome staring. As he set his books down on the desk and took his position behind his desk, Iruka steeled himself for the last part of the daily morning ritual he experienced everyday, but by no means could ever get used to.

"Ohayo minna- san." A simultaneous scraping of chairs made Iruka wince, although he did not show it outwardly.

"Ohayo gozaimasu Iruka sensei!" chorused the whole class together. Iruka felt like he could die. What had happened to this generation of children? Where was the outright defiance that was natural in children of this age? The discord of class that Iruka had come to expect

from this particular age group? Iruka watched as his class gave him a tight, low bow, all students in perfect coordination with each other. _"They look like zombies."_ Iruka thought absently. He bowed back in response as protocol required. If not for that little piece of

etiquette, he thought he would have made a rude gesture towards his class instead. Last year's class, the one with Naruto in it—_"Good thing that I passed Naruto when I did, he would have died with these kids as his classmates"_— they would have said ohayo to him

during their own time. He had gotten used to this direct rudeness and now he had been thrown in to unknown and dangerous territory which he only knew the name of. A sign flashed in to being in to his mind. It read, "Welcome to the land of extreme and unending obedience and politeness. Population: 26." Yes, that was what its name was. He sighed, absent mindedly organizing his papers.

"All right class, today we'll be refining our fighting skills with weapons. We'll be refining our aim with kunai, throwing stars and also learn how to fight with some new…" Iruka trailed off, staring at his class, his mouth falling open slightly. "You guys can sit down now…" Iruka

said, blinking at his students. His class had still been standing after the morning bow, staring at him intently, waiting for his command for them to sit down. Iruka gripped the edge of his desk, knuckles turning white. _"If they do something like that one more time, I think _

_I'll take my kunai to them!"_ He momentarily envisioned the headless bodies of his students; their blood splattered in what Iruka thought were particularly aesthetic patterns on the walls of the classroom. _"The red compliments the walls quite well; I think I'd keep it there _

_if that ever happened."_ This gave him a deeply satisfied feeling, envisioning his students beheaded. He shook his head bringing himself back to reality. _"If the parents knew I was thinking of stuff like that."_ Iruka took a deep breathe and addressed his class again.

"I already told you; sit down, on your own, after the morning greeting. Is that understood?" Iruka scanned the classroom, making eye contact with as many of his students as possible. "If you fail to do so again," Iruka narrowed his eyes slightly for effect, he saw his

students begin to cower slightly. "If you fail to do so again, then I will have to…punish ALL of you!" Iruka paused for effect, staring down his class. If he was not wrong, he actually saw some of his students pale to the point of fainting. It gave him a certain sense of

satisfaction to watch his students cower. Not that he was a malicious slave driver or dictator, intent on wreaking fear on his students. It was the goody- goodness of his class that got to him. Follow protocol, don't break rules, and be as good and respectful to your elders as

possible. What exactly was wrong with this generation? Iruka mused again. Who were their parents and where were they from? Had they taken too many drugs when they had their kids? He wanted to give their parents all a good, hard whack on the head. That might get them

back to reality about how abnormal their children were. Iruka raised his eye- brow slightly at his class, waiting for their response. In a hasty chorus of voices, the students responded,

"Hai, sensei!" Iruka noted that it was less in volume then before and more of the voices were choked in fear. "Goody- goodies." muttered Iruka under his breath.

"As I was saying, we will be practicing with our weapons today. I would like you all to file out to the practice field immediately. Head to the target range and I will be there shortly. And don't do anything silly." _"Not that I need to tell them something let that!"_ He watched

his class get out of their desks and head out the door in what seemed like a sub- consciously formed single file line. Iruka's mouth dropped open slightly. In his entire teaching career, he had never seen that happen. "Freaks," he muttered as he followed the last student

out of his class. At least he would be alone for a while as he headed to the weapons depot on the opposite of the school grounds where all the weapons of Konoha Village were stored. He would be alone, away from all the staring eyes and the stiflingly polite atmosphere his

students gave off. And he would also get to relax his newly discovered, slightly murderous tendencies. Iruka had begun to develop a side of him that he had never realized that he had until he had met his class as of current. The side that was thrilled by blood and murder and

the suffering of the masses, especially when the actions, scenes and visions in his head included the participation of his students, as the victims! Iruka noted his students seated in orderly rows at the edge of practice field number one, quietly keeping out of mischief and

trouble. He also noted that his class was the only class there was on the practice field. Silence stretched in all directions, not at all broken by his class, which were sitting quietly, like ducks who had had their voice boxes taken out; they had the ability to speak and make noise,

but that ability hade been taken from them for reasons and in ways that were mysterious to all but those who had committed the act themselves. What he wouldn't give to have a normal class right now. He whistled as he made his way to the weapons depot, taking his

time. _"Better to stay away from that class as much as possible."_ Iruka thought to himself. He looked up at the sky, noting the blueness of the sky and thinking how nice it would be to take this day off and go fishing in the forest. He continued to whistle, passing

through what seemed to be miles of practice fields. _"Miles are good. Miles means more time away from freak squad, which means more time for me to spend in the realm of sanity and a clean criminal record."_ He continued to walk, idly musing about what he

would do after work when he nearly ran himself in to the wall of the huge weapons depot. He had managed to stop himself in time when his senses had picked up on a particularly large and immovable object that hadn't seemed like it had wanted to move any time soon. The

reason would be that it was the weapons depot. And as far as Iruka knew, weapons depots, particularly when they came in the form of large, towering, steel buildings, didn't move on their own, not without a lot of effort and a little help from the kind forces from above.

Kami- sama, for example. Iruka's question though, as he corrected his direction of movement that would bring him to the entrance of the weapons depot was, why had Kami- sama stuck with the class that many sensei's – and he knew he himself—should be considering the

class from heaven? Maybe the forces from above weren't so kind after all. Maybe they were actually malevolent forces that were plotting for the destruction of many things like Iruka's life. Not that his life had been that bad in particular, but right now, it was with that alien

class. _"I wonder what planet they are from, or what dimension. They could have gotten stuck in an unexplainable phenomenon that bent space and time and ripped a couple of barriers and stuck them in the middle of Konoha village."_ Iruka rubbed his eyes

and sighed. This class wasn't good for his health, his mental health to be more specific. He was talking to himself now and not only that, he was envisioning the death of his class, and enjoying it on top of that! He paused to wrench open the door to the warehouse. It opened

with a squeaky cough, showing him in to the dusty foyer of the warehouse. The pink- haired ninja on duty was sitting with her legs up on the desk, a magazine in her hands, leaning back in to her chair, boredom obvious on her face. The moment that Iruka stepped through the

door, the girl shot in to position, feet on the floor, facing front, the magazine nowhere in sight. She was the picture of diligent work, all attention on a piece of paper in front of her that was completely and utterly blank. When Iruka as half way across the floor, she looked up at him, as if realizing for the first time that he had just entered the compound. She smiled at him, a full and dazzling white smile.

"How may I help you today?" she asked, forced cheerfulness on her face. Iruka couldn't blame her. She was working in a dank and dusty warehouse that only saw the presence of customers once a week when the warehouse – owned by Konoha village

administration—held a weekly 40 off all weapons sale. Then all the ninja's in the village came down and purchased whatever weapons they needed. For the rest of the week, she would be sitting there, serving the one or two customers a day that were desperate enough to

over look the 40 off deal and purchase weapons during the normal days of the week and those that worked directly for the Konoha Village administration. These guys had special cards that let them have access to the weapons for 50 off. This means they could knock

them selves out weapons shopping any day of the week! Lucky them! She was looking at him, her inquiring, cheerful face quickly faltering and giving in to a face of extreme boredom. She fought valiantly against reverting to the less than desirable facial expression, --especially

dangerous and undesirable for customer personnel—but failed miserably. Her face turned against her and reverted completely to extreme boredom mode. She fingered the register on the desk beside her, as if already bored by Iruka's presence. There was no doubt, very little

money in the register as they received almost no business on week days. And they weren't about to get any out of Iruka. Since he was getting weapons in order to teach his class, he was undoubtedly part of the school board, which meant that he could get weapons for free.

"Hi, I need to get some weapons for my class outside." Iruka said. The girl blinked at him as though just coming back from a dream. A dream that would have been about two seconds long.

"Uummm, you're a teacher, with the board?" Iruka nodded in affirmation. She sighed, and reached for a pile of blue colored paper that sat beside her.

"Fill out this form please. I'm sure you know the drill." She handed the paper to him and went back to her world of boredom. Iruka filled out the form as protocol required, silence once again reigning in the room. Once he was done, he handed the form to the girl. She gave

the paper a cursory glance, then reached for a ring of keys behind her and hefted them in to her hand. She made her way over to a door hidden in shadows on the opposite side of the room from the door Iruka had entered in and unlocked the door, revealing the dark interior

of a vast room. He followed the girl in to the warehouse, taking in the familiar sights of storage shelves falling all over themselves with the weight of all the boxes stacked upon them. Each box held weapons and was arranged in alphabetical order, for easy searching. Iruka

blinked twice trying to make out the stairs that led done to the floor of the warehouse. They were awfully hard to see, for some odd reason. Iruka glanced up once more at the dark warehouse shelves, squinting farther in to the darkness. _"Why is the warehouse so _

_dark? They usually have pretty good lighting in here."_ There was something wrong… He paused on his descent down the stairs, squinting even harder in to the darkness. Was it him, or were there no boxes on the shelves? Iruka blinked twice once more. _"If I keep this up, I'll turn in to some sort of ninja owl."_

"Hey!" he called down to the girl ahead of him. He heard a crash and bang followed by a stream of curses best left censored for the ears of the innocent. Iruka winced.

"What?" the girl nearly screamed back at him. "Where did the goddamned lights go? I thought that Kishimoto lit them this morning!"

"I don't think there are any boxes on those shelves." The sounds of the girl picking herself up momentarily stopped. Then loud footsteps ascended the stairs, telling Iruka that she was coming back up to join him.

"What?" she asked exasperated and just a little irritated. "Don't you want your equipment? What about no boxes?"

"Look." Iruka said shortly, pointing out in to the darkness. The girl squinted in the direction of Iruka's finger. She blinked twice, like Iruka had done moments earlier. _"Maybe she'll join me in becoming a ninja owl."_ thought Iruka briefly. Really, there had been a lot of blinking going on, especially on the part of Iruka.

"Let me get a lantern." muttered the girl, disappearing back in to the other room. Moments later, she reappeared with the lantern in hand, lighting it as she went. Once the lantern was lit, they stood in a little island of light. _"In this vast, terrible sea of darkness."_ Iruka thought, adding his own creepy music that only he could hear. "I'm going nuts." muttered Iruka.

"What was that?" asked the girl looking at him. He shook his head.

"Let's just get down there and check out what's going on." They both made their silent way down the stairs of the warehouse, their footsteps echoing loudly in the darkness, the lantern lighting the murky darkness. Iruka meanwhile was playing creepy music in his head

and thinking of vastly implausible scenarios of weapon eating monsters that had consumed all their weapons and were now looking to consume human flesh. _"Nah, that's too much like what other people would think of. Now what would Iruka think of? Iruka would _

_say that the monsters were looking to strip these two helpless people of their weapons and were looking to eat all the weapons in the world! Yes, that's what Iruka would think of!" _Iruka began to smile, an almost maniacal glint entering his eyes. As fast as the

smile and glint had appeared, it vanished. _"When did I start referring to my self in the third person?"_ He was sure his class was getting to him. This was probably his coping method, talking to himself. Suddenly, Iruka felt solid ground underneath his sandal. They had

reached the warehouse floor. He watched as the girl made her way to one of the shelves of the warehouse. _"I wonder what is going to happen?"_ Maybe the weapon eating monsters would suddenly jump out and assail them from the darkness. A gasp from the general

direction of the girl brought Iruka out of his thoughts. At first, Iruka didn't understand what he was seeing. The girl was frozen, holding the lantern in one quivering hand, while supporting herself with the other hand, staring at something in front of her. Then Iruka looked at

where she was staring and realized why she had gasped. The shelves were empty. All that remained were small dust balls, rolling around on the shelves on unseen currents of air. Iruka backed up, squinting in to the darkness. He could see the shelves better on the floor, and

could see that all of the shelves were devoid of anything other then dust balls. All over the warehouse, stood empty shelves that looming down upon the two of them, their stark silhouettes convincing Iruka that this had been the work of the weapon eating monsters and they

had some how coerced the shelves in to their cause in ways that Iruka could never fathom. Iruka backed up one more step just to make sure he was seeing what his eyes were telling him. They were. Iruka's weapon eating monsters had indeed been here, and they had gotten there before him.

Silverlight Neko: First fic published, if you have any suggestions as to how I can improve my writing, please feel free to comment.


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry for posting so late! I went on holiday and then school started and I had to get adjusted again to the usual routine. I had Chapter 2 written quite a while ago, but I didn't want to post it unedited. I'm doing this at school right now! Can you believe it?

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in anyway and do not own Costco, its name or anything else that is under Costco. Though it would be nice to own Costco... Think of all the money!

Chapter 2- Costco hold up 

He moved back to the girl who was staring in complete horror at her surroundings, her face beginning to turn an unnatural shade of white. _"Maybe she'll be a snowy owl…"_ thought Iruka.

"No boxes left in this warehouse as far as I can see." Iruka reported, rather unnecessarily. It was obvious that the girl could see that already. All that came out of her mouth was a high pitched squeak.

"Umm, you think that we should inform the Hokage?" Iruka asked. The girl continued to stare, frozen, hundreds of thoughts flashing through her fast at light speed. Iruka blinked again, waiting patiently for her response. He did not get one.

"Helloooo?" Iruka said waving his hand vigorously in front of her face. She turned slowly to Iruka.

"They're going to kill me!" she squeaked, her voice unnaturally high.

"Who?" asked Iruka, clueless.

"Admin!" she squeaked back. Understanding struck Iruka for the first time.

"Ahhh, Village Administration." Why hadn't he picked up on that faster? Something must be eating away at his brain cells. He gazed around the warehouse once more. Again, all he saw were innocent dust bunnies floating past. His eyes narrowed. Maybe it hadn't just been the shelves that had helped

the weapon eating monsters; maybe the dust bunnies were in on it somehow. There they were, sitting there ever so innocently, rolling by on their invisible currents of air, tumbling around mindlessly. Maybe they weren't so innocent after all. He could just see them now, helping the monsters to

consume Konoha Village's hapless weapons, pushing the boxes along in to their huge yawning mouths. Iruka shuddered. Dust bunnies and shelves, everyone was in cahoots. He glanced back at the girl beside him. A thought struck him.

"Hey, why would Admin kill you?" The girl turned on him, her face rapidly turning red with anger. One would think the answer would have been obvious!

"Because," she growled in a strangled voice. "I'm supposed to be watching the merchandise in the warehouse and making sure that none of it gets stolen. And look what happened!" her voice rising to a shrill scream at the end. Iruka's eyes widened at her reaction to his innocent question.

"Well, I still think that we should see the Hokage, this is big business. Maybe he'll be too busy investigating to ask you closely about what you did."

"OUR WEAPONS GET STOLEN FROM RIGHT UNDER YOUR NOSE AND ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY IS SORRY?" the Hokage thundered. The girl whose name Iruka later found out to be Hitomi was cowering in a corner of the Hokage's office, the Hokage advancing on her, looking ready to turn her in to a pin cushion with his kunai.

"Hokage, sir, we don't even know if they got stolen, they could have just been…taken?" Iruka tried to amend, to no avail. Now the Hokage turned on him.

"TAKEN is the same as STOLEN!" Get that through your head!" Iruka let out a small yelp, dodging quickly as the Hokage dove at his throat. This was most uncharacteristic behavior for the Hokage. Why was he not remaining calm and calculating as usual? Why had he suddenly turned in to a rampaging monster?

"Look, Hokage sir, maybe someone just borrowed them?" Iruka reasoned, rather lamely. This comment served just to send the Hokage on an even fiercer rampage, now he started to hurl what hidden weapons he had on him at both Iruka and Hitomi. Several narrowly missed Iruka's head.

"Maybe there is some other reason sir." Iruka said dodging some well aimed kunai swiftly. "You really shouldn't go rampaging like that yet sir; you'll destroy your office." He twisted out of the way as several shiruken lodged themselves deeply in to the shelf of scrolls where Iruka had been just a second ago. Finally out of breath and out of weapons, but by no means out of rage, the Hokage stopped.

"What other clever reason could there be for the mass disappearance of ALL our weapons?" the Hokage asked, deceptively calm. He smoothed out his robes before seating himself leisurely on his office chair, ignoring the huge mess he had made. Scraps of scrolls floated gently to the ground, while splinters stuck out in jagged edges from what had once been elegant furniture. He glared daggers at Hitomi, now cowering in a different corner of the room.

"Sir, I swear, it's not my fault. I didn't check, no I mean I checked the weapons, but—they, no…" she trailed off lamely, realizing, for the third time, there was absolutely no way to save herself. If she had checked the weapons in the morning that meant that she hadn't been alert enough to sense the

thieves when they had been there. But if she had said that she hadn't checked them in the morning, then that meant that she hadn't been doing her job. Iruka and Hitomi had discussed all her options on the way to the Hokage's office. Twice, Hitomi had tried to run away after realizing that there was

no distinct possibility of her getting out of the situation unscathed. Iruka had informed his class – with a great joy deep in his heart—that they were to return to class and study from their textbooks, while he attended to more pressing matters. He would be back in a while. The Hokage looked at her, long and hard.

"_Which _one is it? Did you check them in the morning or did you not?" Hitomi bowed her head.

"I did not." The Hokage stared still longer at Hitomi.

"You do realize that means you weren't doing your job?" Hitomi responded with a small nod.

"So that means they could have been taken anytime last night or during this morning." He turned on Hitomi once again. "You _did_ check them before you closed up last night, didn't you?" She nodded again, this time more vigorously, her voice lost to her.

"This will require deep and through investigation. I shall send my best ninja's on it. Thank- you for informing me of this pressing matter and sorry about throwing everything at you." The Hokage ended his short statement rather gruffly. Iruka glanced around the ruined office once more, eyeing the

number of weapons stuck in to the walls. _"How much can the Hokage hold?"_ There was quite a number of kunai and shiruken embedded in to the walls. _"Maybe that's why he has such big sleeves."_ Iruka repressed his urge to giggle childishly.

"You are now dismissed. I will call on you again if I need your services." Both ninja rose and bowed, Hitomi rather shakily. Then she turned and nearly fled the office, Iruka following, though slower then Hitomi. He dreaded going back to his class, those staring eyes and polite children. Iruka

was sure now, more then ever that he was going crazy because of them. In what ways though, he was not sure. He exited the Village Administration building and began to walk at a leisurely pace back to the school. No need to hurry. Absolutely no need. Not at all. Iruka began to whistle. Life would be good, until he got back in to class.

Once both ninja had exited the office, the Hokage sprang in to action. This would absolutely not do! The Ninja Competitions were within a week and the village representatives needed weapons to compete! He had to send out a call to bring all the ninja's who were currently on missions back.

They could not waste their weapons, whatever the cause. The Hokage knew that sounded a bit harsh, but he wasn't about to take another humiliating defeat to the Sand village again, for the fourth year. Every year that the Hokage had sent Leaf representatives, the Sand had taken them out in the

finals. It was simply humiliating and the Hokage would not stand for it. They needed their best weapons and ninjas out there! The Hokage had sent the competing ninja in to deep forest training, hoping that they would come back and claim Konoha village the title of Top Ninja Village. The

Hokage would simply not stand for another humiliating defeat. The first time the village had ended up as second, it had been alright. But when it happened four times in a row, the Hokage had imploded. He _needed_ to be first, just to show those Sand goons up! And now the weapons were missing. He

had bought the weapons especially for the competitions. This particular batch of weapons that had been stolen had been from a very expensive brand that had had a major sale in Costco's weapons department. The Hokage had bought up every single one of the weapons, leaving nothing else for the

competition. He had tried to keep his purchase a secret, but alas, it seemed it had not been so. The stolen weapons were evidence that at least one other group of ninja had seen him make the purchase. Now he had to go back to Costco and buy a whole new batch of other, lesser weapons.

The Hokage sighed in frustration. He was a very busy and stressed out man right now. _"This is going to cost a hell of a load of money!" _That was why he needed to save all the weapons he could until the Ninja Competitions were over. They were going to have a major shortage in the

village until then. Either that or they would have to reuse the weapons. Kunai and shiruken became blunt after four times of use; the weapons had limited life to them. It was sad, but true. Weapons were not made to the standards that they had been made to fifty years ago. Most manufacturers

were looking to make money, not quality weapons. _"Okay, I should go to Costco right now and see what they can give me."_ He wrapped his traveling cloak around and turned to leap out the window of his office. He paused suddenly, realizing that he should leave a note with his secretary, so

that anyone looking for him would know what was going on. Poking his head out of the office door, he hailed his secretary.

"Kari- san!" His rather rotund secretary glanced up from her work and looked at him inquiringly. "I'm going out to investigate our missing weapons. Just tell anyone looking for me that I'll be out for about three hours." His secretary nodded her affirmation and the Hokage popped back in to his

office. Now he was ready to leave. He sprang out his window and began to leap nimbly over the rooftops. He glanced down once at the street below him and saw Iruka at a fruit stall haggling with the vendor over the price of fruit that Iruka was holding. The Hokage frowned slightly. Didn't Iruka

have a job? And wasn't that teaching? Hokage shook his head. No time to be worrying about that right now. He had more pressing matters to attend to. Soon the Hokage had left the Village, leaping from tree branch to tree branch in the forest surrounding the Village. He made his way due south

until he came upon an overgrown sign that stated Costco was at a turn four miles east from his current location. The Hokage promptly turned left and began tree hopping east. Eventually he reached the said turn off and took it. He promptly dropped out of the forest after five minutes and

landed on spongy grass that cushioned his landing. He looked up and witnessed the greatness that was Costco. The great grey building reared up against the horizon, blocking the tree line that the Hokage was sure stood behind it. He made his way towards the store glancing around at the bustling

crowds of shoppers making their way in and out of the store. Most were common folk coming to shop, finding deals on things that they would only have dreamed of in their own isolated villages. The Hokage admitted that he could have purchased his weapons from the weapon smith that had lived in

the town two miles before the Costco turnoff. But the weapons that he could purchase at Costco were so much cheaper and he could purchase more and make profit by selling them to his villagers. It all worked out in the end for him. "Even though their weapons are less then prime." He muttered

under his breath. The Hokage wove his way through the milling crowds, making his way to the weapons service desk. Strangely, the area around the desk was very empty. The Hokage frowned, a sneaking suspicion starting to wiggle its way in to his mind. But he promptly squashed it, opting for the growing tree of hope in his mind that all was not lost.

"Good day, dear sir." The Hokage greeted the clerk at the desk as politely as possible. He could almost taste it, the feeling of victory and first place at the Ninja Competitions. "Would you happen to still have the three for one deal you had last week for the Happy Go Lucky Dog brand of weaponry?" The boy at the service desk blinked slowly at him.

"That deal's been sold out for nearly a week now, when some one who looked just like you bought the whole batch." Again the boy blinked, looking at him rather suspiciously. The Hokage fluttered his eye lashes and wrapped his traveling cloak half- consciously over his mouth, attempting to look like anyone other then himself.

"Well, that's too bad." The Hokage replied, raising the tone of his voice so it was unnaturally higher then usual. The service boy's eyebrows rose about a good inch on his face.

"Well, there is the buy five hundred get five hundred for free deal."

"Really?" The Hokage leapt forward, all attempts at a disguise discarded. The boy's eyebrows rose even higher on his forehead. "What brand?" the Hokage was now a happy dog, tail wagging high above his head.

"Ummm," the boy flipped through a recording scroll beside him. "The Rubber Ducky brand." He looked up inquiringly at the Hokage. A storm was brewing in the Hokage's head.

"T-t-t- the Rubber Ducky Brand?" the Hokage spluttered. "Is that all?" The boy continued to flip through the records. He looked back up at the Hokage.

"Anything else and we're all out. We'll be receiving a new shipment in about two weeks time if you want to come back then and get some."

"Fine, fine! I'll take the Rubber Ducky weapons!" The Hokage was distressed. The service desk boy disappeared in to the back, leaving the Hokage with his troubled thoughts. Costco hadn't bothered to order more Happy Go Lucky Dog weapons? He thought that they would at least try to

order more in, but it looked like putting the weapons on special had cost them quite a bit of money that they did not want to spend again. So then, what had happened to the other brands? Why did Costco only have the Rubber Ducky Brand left? Weren't they a Wholesale store that stocked every

brand of weapon? He felt the first place victory wriggle out of his grasp, stick its tongue out at him and skip leisurely away. _"Come back here."_ He pleaded in his head pitifully. With the Rubber Ducky Brand, they were sure to lose. As the Rubber Ducky Brand indicated, they made their

weapons partially out of rubber with steel or iron. This up held the advertised grantee that the purchased weapons would be durable and would never break on you or your money back! The only draw back was… everything else! Because of the partial rubber consistency of the weapons, the

weapons were not only weaker, but they also did not fly was well, were very unbalanced and did not penetrate objects easily. The added draw back was that the rubber weapons required a different technique when they were used. Ninja's used to wielding all metal weapons whether steel or iron

would not be able to adapt to the feel of the rubber weapons. And the Hokage knew that his Ninja's could not adapt, not even within a given week. The technique was just too difficult to master. The Hokage ground his teeth. But it was either this, or no weapons at all. The boy reappeared. He looked at the Hokage and the Hokage looked at him.

"Well?" The Hokage demanded.

"Ummm," the boy looked down at his hands rather sheepishly. "I kind of forgot one small thing. Well, more like forgot to record it and forgot that it ever happened." The Hokage glared at the boy.

"Well?" he prompted again. The storm in the Hokage's head was becoming more vicious by the second. If it was something incredibly stupid, then the Hokage felt obliged to rip the boys head off of his shoulders. "What is it?"

"We're kind of out of the Rubber Ducky Brand." The boy now could not meet the Hokage's eye. The Hokage's storm broke in his head. Fury ripped through the Hokage. Things did not look good for the service desk boy, although the boy did not seem aware of it right then. With the last vestiges of control that he could muster, the Hokage asked through ground teeth,

"So you mean that you are out of _everything? _Every brand? NO weapons left in your store whatsoever?" The boy responded with a small nod. The Hokage was fast losing control.

"Can you tell me, who bought all the weapons?" The boy looked up, about to protest and saw the look in the Hokage's eyes. They were murderous. Changing his mind quickly, the boy quickly obliged to the Hokage's wishes and began flipping quickly through the sales records.

"Umm, my records say that it was the Sand Village that bought everything sir." The Hokage rounded on the boy.

"The Sand Village?" The Hokage's whole body began to shake. Things did not look good for the boy at all.

Silverlight Neko: Hey there! That's the second chapter for all you folks that bother to read it! . Thanks to my first reveiwee! Again, if you guys have any comments or tips and advice for me, please post. Latrz!


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